John 14:23-29
23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will
keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make
our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you
hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25 "I
have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But
the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world
gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You
heard me say to you, "I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you
loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father
is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does
occur, you may believe.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
·
What is it that puts you at peace? Is
it sitting under a beautiful tree on a bright summer’s day? Is it surveying a
blooming field of a crop? Is it seeing your children succeed? It’ll be
different for each of us.
·
As the Easter season draws to a close
and we prepare to celebrate both the Ascension and the festival of Pentecost,
the Gospel of John tells us of Jesus’ farewell discourse at the Last Supper.
Although this lengthy talk is set before the Crucifixion and Resurrection, it
makes sense for the Church to place it here for our hearing and digestion.
Jesus is preparing his disciples for his leaving and his absence. Naturally,
they are upset and ask all sorts of questions. (As I’ve said before, the
disciples never seem to catch on to things before the coming of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost.)
·
In the passage we hear today, Jesus
answers Judas “not Iscariot” and tells him and the other disciples who are
present that both he and the Father will dwell in each of his followers, that
they express their love for him in following his words, and that they should be
happy he is going to the Father since that means that all Jesus hoped for will
progress.
·
One of the things he says it that he
is leaving his peace with the disciples. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
to you. Why is it “my peace”? How does this differ from the peace
known in the world? Let’s deal with the second question first.
·
It’s said there was a temple in the
city of Rome that had doors on either side, doors that were closed in times of
peace and open in times of war. The legend goes on to say that the doors of
this temple were closed only three times in the history of the Rome, both
before and during the time of the empire, possibly seven or eight hundred
years. Look at any history book and you’ll see plenty of wars and conflicts.
Some cynical historians hold that war is the natural state of things and peace
is the aberration.
·
It’s true that the peace the world
gives is usually filled with sabre-rattling, suspicion, and watchfulness. It
isn’t so much peace as a time of preparation or of recovery from war. This is
not the peace Jesus is talking about.
·
His peace is a peace that only the
presence of God and God’s grace can give. That’s what makes the difference. Of
course, this peace is not simply the absence of war. There is more to it than
that.
·
A week or two ago, we talked about
what peace means in the Biblical sense. Yes, the Bible is full of battles, war,
and conflict. And the Bible is full of the desire for peace. The basic idea is
that of “Shalom”, the Hebrew word for
“peace.” That word expresses something that is far beyond the world’s peace of
either the absence of war which is often a white-knuckled truce or the tragic,
silent peace of the cemetery.
·
Shalom goes far beyond that. That peace is
a God-given profound and holistic sense
of well-being. More than that, it carries the hope of a fulfillment of what God
wishes for all creation. It means completeness,
wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity,
perfection, fullness, rest, harmony, and the absence of agitation or discord.
·
There is still more. Shalom is used as both a greeting and a
farewell. Used that way, it becomes a blessing. One never wishes to keep peace
for oneself. When you greet another person with such peace, you hope/wish/pray
it is theirs as well.
·
This is the peace that the world
cannot give; the peace that can only be received when God gives it. It cannot
be build and it cannot be horded. It also cannot be retained only for the self.
·
In an odd way, it is like the grace
of God. If you take grace to be God’s own life, you realize that God is so full
of life that God is eager – bursting, in fact – to share that life. If peace is
from God, once again, God is so full of the deep and wide sense of peace and
well-being, that God is eager to share it.
·
This sort of peace is what we all
want. It is a very “active” peace, not at all tied up in self-satisfaction or
self-centeredness. It is hard to have true peace in the sense of “Shalom” if all involved are not
participating in it. It is only complete when it is given and shared.
·
It was an uncertain future that faced
the disciples when Jesus shared his peace with them. It may be that they could
not receive his peace there and then. With the experience of the Resurrection,
they could receive it. It was completed in the Pentecost event and with the
coming of the Spirit, the entire Church knew the continued presence of Jesus
and his continued peace.
·
This experience is ours as well. We
may know anxiety and fear, even over the simple things… like the deadline for taxes
being Monday. We may know such upset over many more serious and life-changing
things. Still, the Shalom of Jesus is
ours. If it is ours, it is ours to share. Our sharing it among ourselves and
with the entire world will make a difference for the world.
·
In a very real way, this peace that
is given to us to share might just be a bit of the light of God, which the Book
of Revelation says And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The
nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their
glory into it.
·
This is quite a way to start to bring
the Easter season to a close, but to remember and believe that the peace of God
is with us always is an earth-shaking idea. Not only that, it is an earth-remaking idea.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
·
Peace with with you all.
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